Williamson, who came to the crease after the early wicket of Martin Guptill, put on a 117-run second wicket partnership with Tom Latham to make major inroads into India’s first innings total of 318.

At stumps, New Zealand had reduced the deficit to 166 runs, with Williamson unbeaten on 65 and Latham also well set on 56 when rain stopped play after tea to wash out the final session of play. The batting duo tackled the Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja with aplomb as they used their feet and the sweep shot to great effect at Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium.

“We are confronted by two very good spinners who know the conditions well and are going to challenge you at different times,” New Zealand’s batting coach Craig McMillan told reporters.

“Both guys soaked that (constant appealing) up really nicely throughout that partnership and whenever they got a scoring opportunity they made the most of it. “That is one of the keys, you don’t allow Ashwin or Jadeja to bowl 12 or 15

balls at one person. You have to find a way a way to get down the other end and both those guys did that really nicely today.” Williamson survived a scare when a Ashwin ball hit the back of his helmet.

The back flaps which provide extra support to the skull fell onto his stumps, but didn’t dislodge the bails.

Latham also rode his luck after Jadeja got the left-handed batsman caught at short leg, but replays showed the ball hitting the helmet grille of fielder Lokesh Rahul.

The decision was referred to the third umpire who gave Latham not out as according to the rules, external protective gear cannot come into play while taking a catch.

The duo got to their respective fifties soon after, although off-spinner Ashwin and left-arm spinner Jadeja continued to trouble the batsmen.

The Proteas can nudge up one place to sixth in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test rankings if they win, while the Black Caps will remain fifth irrespective of the result.

But the reputation of Test cricket is at much at stake as rankings points after a farcical first Test in Durban where less than 100 overs of cricket were played before a wet, soft outfield prevented any play on the last three days. There was even less cricket in a Test match between the West Indies and India in Port of Spain, also because of outfield conditions.

It is the first time Test cricket has been played in South Africa in August, almost two months before the usual start of the season.

Preparing grounds for winter conditions has been a challenge – which Durban failed to meet after re-seeding the outfield only two months before the match. Following reports from the match referees, the outfields in Durban and Port of Spain were condemned as “poor” by the ICC.

Centurion groundsman Rudolph du Preez had the advantage of planting winter grass much earlier than Durban, with work starting in April, almost immediately after the 2015-16 season.

He said it was necessary to plant winter grass because fielders struggled on dry, dormant summer grass when the same two countries met in a one-day international in August last year.

With virtually no rain falling on the South African Highveld during winter – and no rain predicted during the Test – Du Preez is confident that conditions will be suitable for Test cricket. He said more time had been necessary to prepare the pitch because cool conditions meant it took longer to dry out after watering.

Du Preez said he did not expect uneven bounce to be as much of a factor as it has been in the later stages of matches in recent seasons.

“It might not deteriorate as we are used to. It might be a little bit slower, it might be holding back a bit more,” he said. Centurion has been a fortress for South Africa in Test cricket, with the home side having won 16 of the 21 Tests at the ground. Their only two losses were against England in a contrived result in 1999-2000, engineered by the late Hansie Cronje before he was banned from cricket because of his association with bookmakers, and against Australia in 2013-14.

South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Dean Elgar, Stephen Cook, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada, Dale Steyn, Dane Piedt

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (capt), Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling (wkt), Mitchell Santner, Doug Bracewell, Neil Wagner, Tim Southee, Trent Boult

Sri Lanka had three wickets in hand and required 13 off the last over by Grant Elliott at Mount Maunganui but could only manage 10 runs as they lost two wickets.

The result put the pressure on Sri Lanka to win the second and the final game in Auckland on Sunday or they will slip from first to third behind the West Indies and Australia in the world rankings.
New Zealand, sent into bat first at Bay Oval, made 182 for four in their 20 overs and Sri Lanka replied with 179 for nine.
Sri Lanka lost early wickets and were 86-5 at the halfway stage with top scorer Danushka Gunathilaka back in the pavilion after hitting 46 off 29 deliveries.

Tillakaratne Dilshan went at the start of the second over and Captain Dinesh Chandimal was out in the third over as they tried to force the pace against the bowling of Matt Henry and Trent Boult.
Milinda Siriwardana (42) and Thisara Perera (28) started to repair the innings with a stand of 49 in 27 balls for the sixth wicket and Chamara Kapugedera (17) and Nuwan Kulasekara (14) kept up the pressure.
But on the third ball of the final over Kulasekara was well caught in the deep by Boult and Kapugedera was run out on the next delivery.

Guptill and Kane Williamson gave New Zealand a flying start bringing up their century partnership at the start of the 11th over.
But they had no sooner passed 100 when Guptill was first to fall for 58 when he was run out by a side-on throw from Kapugedera on Williamson’s call for a quick single.
Williamson followed soon after for 53 off 42 while Colin Munro scored 36 and Ross Taylor was not out 22.
For Sri Lanka, Kulasekara took two for 26, while the leading bowlers for New Zealand were Boult with three for 21 and Henry with three for 44.

Guptill went within a whisker of breaking the world record for the fastest ODI 50 and was close to scoring one of the fastest centuries when New Zealand wrapped up the game.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said Guptill was “superb” while Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews described his side’s performance as “embarrassing” and “pathetic”.

After being dropped off the first ball he faced, Guptill went on the warpath with a brutal assault that included nine fours and eight sixes.

For Sri Lanka, it was a humiliating performance after they expressed a desire to gain some pride from being thrashed in the first ODI by seven wickets when New Zealand knocked off the 189-run target with 29 overs to spare.

Instead of getting better they went backwards, being dismissed for 117 in 27.4 overs.

“It was embarrassing. Once again a pathetic display by the whole batting unit,” Mathews said.

“We just couldn’t handle it. It didn’t swing or seam or bounce. It was just bad shot selection.”

Guptill set about demolishing the Sri Lanka attack.

He took 14 off one over by Nuwan Kulasekera and 26 off the next over from Dushmantha Chameera as he raced to 46 from 12 deliveries.

His momentum was briefly arrested by some well-placed Kulasekera yorkers and it took another five balls for Guptill to reach his 50, one behind the world record of 16 held by South African AB de Villiers.

“I got a couple of yorkers and couldn’t quite get it. But I’ll take the not out and a win than the fastest 50 and getting out,” he said.

Guptill did, however, break the New Zealand record for the fastest 50, going one better than McCullum’s best.

‘Good for batting’

McCullum did not open the New Zealand innings after injuring himself when he crashed into the fence while trying to cut off a boundary.

Instead Tom Latham took up the opening duties and hit the winning run to be unbeaten on 17 from 20 balls while Guptill had faced 30 for his 93 not out.

De Villiers also holds the record for the fastest ODI century, achieving the target in 31 balls in the same innings that he set the fastest 50 record against the West Indies in Johannesburg in January.

Monday’s entire game took exactly 36 overs for New Zealand to go 2-0 up in the five-match series.

When he won the toss and elected to bat, Sri Lanka’s Mathews described the pitch as “good for batting”.

But his batsmen were unable to handle Matt Henry, New Zealand’s chief destroyer in the first match who again took four wickets.

He struck first in the fourth over when Tillakaratne Dilshan was caught at first slip by Ross Taylor for seven, and the wickets tumbled regularly from there.

Sri Lanka still looked capable of posting a respectable score when they reached 81-5 in the 18th over but they then lost three wickets for no runs to be 81-8.

Kulasekara, who struggled at the start of his innings when he was dropped twice and won an appeal against an lbw decision, went on to top-score for Sri Lanka with 19.

For New Zealand, Henry took four for 33 and Mitchell McClenaghan three for 32. AFP

On a Dunedin pitch said to be ripe for seam bowlers, Sri Lanka were left to rue putting New Zealand in to bat as the Black Caps amassed 409 for eight by stumps.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum plays a shot during the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Dunedin. McCullum smashed 75 off 57 balls before being dismissed. AFP

Opener Guptill fell just before the close, after hitting just his third Test century and his first in four years, coming 33 runs short of his highest score of 189 against Bangladesh in 2010.

Meanwhile the ever-reliable Kane Williamson made 88 and Brendon McCullum 75 as New Zealand exposed the raw Sri Lankan attack.

New Zealand were cruising 229 for two at tea before Sri Lanka fought back in the final session when they took six wickets, albeit for an expensive 180 runs.

There were only seven maiden overs bowled and New Zealand cracked 57 fours, of which Guptill contributed 21.

The opener’s position in the side was precarious after he averaged just 13 in the recent tour of Australia, and said he “didn’t have a lot to lose” as he took to the Sri Lankan attack.

His third Test century came 41 innings and four years after he last posted three figures against Zimbabwe.

Inconsistent form saw him out of the Test side for two years before the short-form of the game resurrected his career when he played a starring role at this year’s World Cup.

Guptill got off the mark with an off-drive to the boundary and in an elegant innings, he used the same front-foot stroke to bring up his 100 when he drove Suranga Lakmal to the boundary.

“I was trying to go out and be as positive as I could be,” Guptill said, as he repaid the faith shown in him by the New Zealand selectors. “I didn’t have a lot to lose so I just tried to go out and be as positive as I could and have some fun.”

“They (selectors) have been good to me and given me a good run in the Test side and I thank them very much for that and today capped off a lot of hard work over the last 18 months,” Guptill added.

Guptill had a few chances — two shaky edges and a near run-out early in the innings, and two lbw shouts on 78.

Had Sri Lanka appealed the second one, replays showed the not out decision may have been overturned.

But with luck going his way, Guptill shared a 173-run partnership with Williamson, a New Zealand record for the second wicket against Sri Lanka, then added 89 with McCullum.

He was eventually undone six overs from stumps when captain Angelo Mathews swung the ball away and the batsman feathered a catch to wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal.

Williamson fell on the last ball before tea, lashing out at a rough delivery from Nuwan Pradeep to be caught in the slips by Dimuth Karunaratne reaching high above his head.

He left the ground requiring only eight more runs to become the fifth player to reach 1,000 runs this calendar year.

McCullum, who like Guptill failed to fire in Australia, also found the Sri Lankan attack more to his liking.

He was at his belligerent best as he raced from 35 to 50 with a six, two fours and a single in successive deliveries from Dushmantha Chameera.

McCullum reached 75 in 57 balls and belted 13 fours and a six before Mathews turned to Milinda Siriwardana, his seventh bowler for the day.

With his third delivery in his third Test, Siriwardana bowled full on the leg side and McCullum sent a top edge to Kithuruwan Vithanage at deep square leg. For Sri Lanka, Suranga Lakmal took two for 69 while Nuwan Pradeep and 23-year-old Chameera both finished with two for 101. AFP